City of Vancouver wins international award for Food Strategy

October 14 2016

Our Food Strategy is the winner of the first-ever Milan Pact Award for "Governance or ensuring an enabling environment for effective action."

We signed onto the Milan Food Policy Pact last year, along with 127 other cities around the world. The Milan Pact Awards were created to stimulate the exchange of practices and learning between signatory cities.

In 2013, City Council adopted the Vancouver Food Strategy to become a global leader in urban food systems by 2020. For more than a decade, we have been working in partnership with the Vancouver Food Policy Council and countless community organizations to support a just and sustainable food system.

Increasing food assets

Specify a target of increasing Vancouver's food assets by a minimum of 50% over 2010 levels by 2020

Identified the creation of a food strategy as a priority action

The total number of city-wide and neighbourhood food assets increased from 3,340 in 2010 to 4,731 in August, 2016, an increase of 42%.

What we have accomplished under the Food Strategy

Under the Vancouver Food Strategy, food systems actions addressed since 2013 have resulted in several milestones including:

40% increase in the number of community gardens, and Vancouver is one of the first cities in Canada to adopt bylaws to permit and legitimize urban farming

Farmers market guidelines that have increased the number of markets across the city and provided more opportunities for local farmers to sell in Vancouver

Community food market guidelines have increased access to fresh food in underserved neighbourhoods and to low income residents

Sustainable Food Systems grant funding has increased the number of Neighbourhood Food Networks and the amount of food programming offered to community members to improve access to food and food skills and to build social connections with neighbours

An update to the street food vending program has more than doubled the number of food carts to 142, expanding the variety of cuisine for Vancouverites and visitors alike, and creating jobs

Since the implementation of the Green Bin program up to the end of 2015, we have diverted close to an accumulated 126,000 tonnes of food scraps and yard trimmings through the program

About the Milan Pact Awards

The Milan Pact Awards will be presented at the Mayors Summit hosted in Rome by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on October 13-14, 2016.

Founded by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Day is celebrated on October 16 annually to help increase awareness of world hunger and poverty.